ABSTRACT

The archaeology of African American life has become an essential and prominent part of historical archaeology. Because it is so important and varied, against choosing one site to visit in this windshield survey. Further, by choosing African survival rather than its demise or reconfiguration as a research focus, moral mission archaeology established a research precedent that still stalks African-American archaeology today. The search for cultural markers linked to Africa as the most significant aspect of African-American material life. Although many studies have focused largely on plantation life in the southern United States, the context of enslavement was pervasive, extending far beyond such settings to small farms, urban homes, artisans' shops, industries, docks, and other places throughout the New World. Archaeologists have successfully brought a measure of complexity and sophistication to their questions and approaches about African American archaeology. They have come to the value that involvement of descendant communities can bring to the methods, results, and meaning of the work.